The Young World by Chris Weitz || We don’t need no adults

Yay, it’s the apocalypse!

(I know, it’s strange. I just like end-of-the-world things.) I was freakishly excited to get this one for review. I even photographed it with my coffee. Spoiler: That says I like it.

Thanks Hachette Australia for the ARC! The Young World by Christ Weitz hit shelves July 29th, 2014.

After a mysterious Sickness wipes out the rest of the population, the young survivors assemble into tightly run tribes. Jefferson, the reluctant leader of the Washington Square tribe, and Donna, the girl he’s secretly in love with, have carved out a precarious existence among the chaos. But when another tribe member discovers a clue that may hold the cure to the Sickness, five teens set out on a life-altering road trip to save humankind.The tribe exchanges gunfire with enemy gangs, escapes cults and militias, braves the wilds of the subway and Central Park…and discovers truths they could never have imagined.

I was really excited to read this one, because a) I’m a huge fan of Gone by Michael Grant and this looked similar and b) APOCALYPSE. Accuse me all you want, peoples, but I do find the apocalypse fascinating. (Except for the part about no WiFi…I don’t find that fascinating at all.)

I was a little bit underwhelmed, unfortunately, but I still liked this book.

Basically: I love all theories about the apocalypse.

One of the coolest is probably the There Are No More Adults So The Kids Create Havoc. Who doesn’t like to hypothesis on the craziness of kids, right?! And, like in Gone, the kids have set up communities, they wave guns, they eat rats, they try to find The Answer To All Things, which in this case is a cure. (Which reminded me a lot of Partials, actually.) The world actually seemed quite stable. There have been no adults for 2 years and the kids have rhythm in their mini societies.

The characters are kick-butt AWESOME.

We have two narrators which usually I don’t like (because it’s hard to get to know two people’s POVs and oftentimes one is a lot stronger than the other). But this time? LOVED IT. On one side we have Jefferson, who’s half-Japanese and nice. Flip the page and meet Donna. She’s feisty, sarcastic and talkative. Their voices were wildly different and both equally interesting. I can’t even pick a favourite!

There’s a motley of secondary characters like Brainbox, Peter, SeeThrough and Kath. No one is as good (I didn’t think) as the two narrators. And they all sort of fit into their slots of “the brain” and “the comic relief”, etc. But Jefferson and Donna really punched the cookie-cutter shapes and were their own people.

How about a pop-culture reference…or two…or ninety?

I’m half happy with this, half…skeptical. It’s absolutely stuffed with pop-culture references. Which is interesting and cool when you get them…but I’m Australian. Sometimes I just had NO idea what they were talking about. And it’s not just “they’re listening to Justin Bieber” but stuff like “We went all Hulk at them”. If you don’t understand the references, you don’t understand the scene.

So this kind of fits on my “not-so-happy” list. I didn’t understand some of them, and it actually sacrificed clever writing for references. Instead of describing Jefferson’s sword, it just said “if you’ve watched This-And-This movie, you’ll know what I mean”. Um…well, I haven’t, so poor me, I don’t get to know what his sword looks like.

Oh, and the format was like reading a movie script: which I loved.

You know me! I’m a little bit wild about crazy formats. This had ’em. Often times it was like reading a movie script, which makes sense seeing as the author is a film director. (Actually, this would make a good TV series. Just sayin’.)

Donna dropped her snark as the book progressed.

She was very heavy on the pop-culture references and sarcasm and snark at the beginning…but as the book went on? I almost felt like we just ran out of references so we stopped. WHAT. You can’t do that! I love beginning-of-the-book-Donna, but end-of-the-book-Donna nearly seemed like a different person.

The ending was very rushed.

Again, it felt like we hit 300 pages and went “Okay, time to wrap it up.” I thought there was no way they’d be able to finish the journey and find the answers in the last 50-pages. I assumed it’d be a cliffhanger ending with all the answers Coming To A Sequel Near You. (It is the start of a trilogy, by the way.)But NO. Let us cram all that needs to be done in 50-pages. It felt so rushed and so awkward.

And the ending?!

WHAT WAS WITH THE ENDING?! It was fine…but it was random, and the only way you’re going to find out is if you read it. (I still recommend it, by the way, even though I have a lot of twitchy issues with it.)

And there was the small issue of…I have read this story before.

It’s basically Partials by Dan Wells meets Gone by Michael Grant. While The Young World was absolutely enjoyable to read…I’m don’t feel like it brought anything new to the table. (Gone will always be my favourite.)

I won’t lie: I enjoyed it insanely much. Apocalypse! Freaky kids with guns! Viva la Crazy Teenagers! I’m just a bit underwhelmed at the plot (although the characters were brilliant) and I’m disappointed in the crazily rushed ending.

Will I read book #2? You better believe it.

chat with me, blogglings! if you’ve read it: did you think those last 50-pages were too rushed? (or is it just me?)

if you haven’t read it: how do you feel about pop-culture references in books? do you find you don’t always “get” them, or do you think they’re freakishly awesome?

Cait has realised she can find applicable Supernatural gifs for EVERY review. She won’t though. She’ll spare you. But it was very handy to have review this book with Cas. Because the apocalypse is so fascinating, Cait has taken active measures to be prepared for it. She has a survival plan. She has a chocolate stash. She’s enjoying the Internet while she has it.

Comments

I have a copy of this book at home… I want to start it, because I need me some Apocalypse-ish story. But it sounds a lot like Partials by Dan Wells (as you've mentioned in your review) and I LOVE the Partials sequence, which is why I'm a bit apprehensive.I love pop-culture references as well, I don't always get them, but most of the times I do (which is probably why I love them so damn much). Gah, I really have mixed feelings about whether I should read it or not, I need a kick-ass read, badly. But I love original stories, and this does sound a bit too familiar to me… These decisions are making my head spin! Cait, you choose for me! 😉 haha

It is a lot like Partials, plot-wise, but the style and voice of the characters are completely different. x) So you may be fine with it! But I knoooow how it feels to read a book that sounds to similar to a favourite. 😐 If you do read it, lemme know what you think, okay?! So…JUST READ IT. I need to know your thoughts!!

Great review, Cait! I sooo want to read this one! I've been in the mood for something apocalyptic, and this one sounds really good. Maybe not the most original, yes, but I'm still really interested to see what this has to offer. I love pop culture references in novels–I'd say I get most of them. But then they're the ones which I don't understand, and it kind of just goes over my head. xD But I'm really looking forward to this one!

I have issues when there's a lot of American ones. But when I read Aussie books, I get aaaall the references and gosh, it makes me feel awesome. x) I get why authors do it, and I totally don't hate it, it just bugs me when I feel like they're talking a different language, you know?

I love the idea of pop culture references, but I'm highly unlikely to get any of them actually, which means that they're wasted on me. I feel so out of the loop when I read them. Pretty awesome idea though.

It's true what they say: Supernatural really DOES have a gif for everything (especially apocalyptic type stuff it seems). I have to read Gone, it seems. As for pop cultural references, I try not to put them in my own writing. Although I kept a Voldemort references in one of my MS's, because…Voldemort. I think as long as they're REALLY well-known, and the references aren't too heavy-handed, they can work really well. But I think referencing things like Facebook/Myspace or whatever are dangerous, because it means the book might be dated in a few years…But anyway, that's a discussion for another time 🙂

THEY DO. THEY ABSOLUTELY DO. And better than that, I can like theme a post per character. This was definitely a Cas and me post. And hey, apocalypse is their speciality. I usually skip references in my writing, except, somehow in my zombie one they keep talking about Lord of the Rings. There's been two references now and it's making me happy. Who knows if they'll stay in later drafts though. x) And I agree it DOES date the book, but sometimes that's okay. I mean, I don't scowl at Eleanor and Park for mentioning cassette tapes, right? It sets the time period, and maybe in 10 years we'll think that's cool to "look back". Ha! That's a funny thought actually.

I really want to read this! Apocalypses hold a special place in my mind… (in a non-creepy fashion)(how can that even be non-creepy?!)Gone is about 4 books down on my to-read-list at the moment. I'm having to wade through a few weighty novels first, but I will inform you when I have finished it :DSeriously though, this books sounds amazing. My favourite TV Show is based on a zombie apocalypse (the Walking Dead) so perhaps my favourite book could be apocolypse-themed too! (yay.)And as to pop-culture references … I love them, as long as I know them. In Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, every other sentence is literally a piece of 80's trivia, which I didn't get at all… But I still loved the book.Woop for gifs.Woop for apocalypse.Woop for tacos.(the tacos didn't need to be there… I was struggling to come up with a 3rd woop)

OH GOSH I am absolutely enthralled by the premise of this book!! I lololove apocalypse-themed books! They are my cup of tea along with dystopians 😀 Kickbutt characters are always a go go. I am thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this book – you make me want to read this asap (I call it the Cait syndrome lol). No no no no…. Why do authors mess the endings T___TPop-culture references are fine for me. I often get them, but sometimes there are references that are not that familiar or popular and I sort of feel edgy about it. :DFantastic review, Cait!

Yessss! It took me a while to warm up to Donna since she was a little in-your-face for me in the beginning, but it was never boring with her talking, that's for sure. BUT THE LAST 50 PAGES. I wanted to hit it. Seriously, slow beginning then it picked up for me with that library scene 😉 but it had plenty of time to work in a proper non-rushed ending AND WHAT WAS THAT EVEN. The pop-culture references didn't bother me that much, didn't get some of them, and they're fun and all but it just got annoying after a while. Oh Cas <3 I really need to catch up on the last season.

Huh. I think the pop-culture references would be difficult for me too… I mean, I'm fairly up-to-date on that stuff, but I don't know /all/ of it. That was one of the things that I didn't always like about the Percy Jackson books. All the pop culture references were distracting and sometimes I didn't get them and sometimes it just dated the book. BUT I do like dystopians that are about kids surviving on their own! I'm currently really enjoying James Dashner's Maze Runner series (just finished book two) and and and I need to finish Gone! It had to go back to the library before I could finish it, but I was enjoying it.

Hmm…I'm not sure what to think about this one Cait! It's supposedly ready for me to pick up at the library already (I will say I'm impressed since it was only published less than a week ago!), so I'm excited to dive in. 🙂 I like the idea of how the book is written – in script format – which makes sense since the author is a writer for movie scripts. I think I'd really like this style since I'm so used to reading scripts – LOL! The only thing I'm concerned about regarding the formatting is the action. Since it's only written in dialogue, how do we know what's happening around everyone or what (if any) action is taking place? The pop references probably won't bother me because – well…we have Google for that. xD ;)And boo for rushed endings! 🙁 You know how excited I've been for this one though, and your review has made me even MORE excited! xD Thanks for sharing! <3

I love pop culture references! But if I don't understand it… then it really isn't that good. But I still want to read this book! I got that Gone vibe too and hearing that they actually do get along is pretty interesting. Thumbs down for rushed ending, however thumbs up for the formatting! I like it! You're right, it's like a movie script!

This looks like an interesting book – with the unique formatting and apocalyptic scene. Random endings can kind of annoy me if I enjoyed the whole rest of the book but am left with a 'what just happened???' reaction, but – if I do come across it I might give it a go nonetheless. Great review Cait!

I haven't read partials but, if I have to choose between this and Partials, I would choose the latter. ^^ I've read book 1 to 5 in the Gone series (DNFed book 6) and overall liked them but I think I'm over that conception of no parents, you know? It does feel like I would have many déjà vus while reading this. I'm glad you at least enjoyed it overall. 🙂 Fantastic review!

I kind of detest pop culture references. Not because I don't get them, I usually do, and if not I can look them up, but it immediately dates the book. It's the whole "brand new car depreciating in value the second you drive it off the lot" kind of thing- you immediately will lose steam in your book the minute the reference becomes obsolete (which, 99% of the time, it will). I'd been reading a book a few years ago, a series actually. At first, I wasn't sure when it'd been published, but then I started reading about "scrunchies" and 90's movie and music references, and it bugged me. A lot. This was like, 2009 and while yes, I did know what those references meant, the book suddenly lost a lot of its allure. Of course, I looked it up, and it had been published in 1993. Now, if you're trying to write a book that is taking place in current times, I get that certain things will HAVE to be as we have them now: The same technology, modes of transportation, way of communicating, etc. It fits with the book of course. I am fine with that. But random pop culture, just for funsies? Pass. Anyway, I loved your review! I do want to read this book, I am a bit worried by how similar it is to Gone and Partials though. I'll probably read it anyway, but not like, immediately. Since I still have to finish both the Gone and Partials series!

Really? I kind of like pop-culture references because they DO date a book. I mean, Eleanor and Park is awesome and The Perks too, with their references to mixed-tapes and things. Just think: in 20 years this will be historical fiction. Okay, lol. XD But I get what you mean too. I'm okay with the pop references, I AM, like Supernatural is actually stuffed with them…but I just don't get a lot and feel kind of stupid in my quiet corner.

Ooooo this one seems awesome (: I haven't read a lot of true apocalypse world ending sort of stories other than zombie haha. So, this one intrigues me. Duo POVs done well?? Count me in girl. Jefferson sounds awesome, and yay he's Japanese- always nice to see some diversity. AND WAIT HE'S… NICE?!?! Not a super douche-y bad boy 😮 does. not. compute [; Donna also sounds awesome, sarcasm can really breathe some humor in a otherwise bleak story. I personally find it great that the two characters with POVs were so different. I think it's that difference that gave them each a unique voice and made them not meld into one (: Ehhh, I don't think the pop culture and references would really be my thing. Like you said, it could be possibly confusing for people if they didn't get them. Also, I find that some references will be out dated in like a year. It'd be awkward for there to be a reference to like some really popular song that ends up being a one hit wonder, and nobody really remembers afterwards. I think references are better in films or TV lol. Oooo cool formatting! I'm a little wary of formatting but I feel like I'd actually enjoy this one [: Is the whole story in the format? Or just pieces? Cause I feel like having the full story like that may make it a bit hard for me to imagine the scenery as it would be dialogue and character focused. Awww :[ It sounds like Donna's character actually devolved as the story went on. That's annoying, as you can just compare the initial awesomeness to the mediocre ending. At least if she started off a little meh, she could have grown into something great. Rushed ending?? Oh no pacing issues. Haha, I really don't see how cramming all of this action into the last part of the book can leave any reader feeling anything but like they were rushed. It's definitely not a enjoyable quality, it feels so jarring.Lovely review Cait! <33 I've missed commenting on your amazing blog, been dealing with some not so great shit lately /:

I know, right?! NICE guys in books? Pft. Do we need an apocalypse to get book-boys to start showing some manners then, eh? I LOVED how different their voices were! Usually I get confused when it switches (but it was also in different fonts too, which I liked) so yes. Insta-win there.And I totally should've explained it better in my review! But NO it's not aaaaall in script-format. It just goes into that when they have lots of back and forth dialogue. The rest of the book has normal writing…like with description and action scenes and things. It probably was more dialogue focused then, say, scenery, but no — it definitely delves into detail so you won't be sad there!!Pacing made me cry, but HEY. Can't have everything right?Awww. *hugs you* YOU NEED CHOCOLATE, OKAY? LOTS OF CHOCOLATE. And I hope things get kind of better soon. 😐

Hmm. This sounds pretty good–I love dual POVs, especially when both voices are equally strong (well, at least in the beginning, I guess–but I'm not loving the sound of that rushed ending and the fact that this is the first book in a series. I might wait to pick this up until all the books are out. Great review!

Okay, how creepy (cool??) that I post my August TBR with this book on it and you review it today?? I’d qualify this as awesome 😛 Cait… do you not know who Hulk is or are you just using that as an example? Because if it’s the former then we need to remedy that IMMEDIATELY, starting with an Avengers movie night 😀 Seriously – we’ll Skype it and press play at the same time so I can hear your reactions xD I actually haven’t read much post-apocalyptic stuff, so this a bit of an entry into the genre for me. But I’ve heard that Gone is good; maybe I’ll try that one too 🙂 PS: CASTIELLLL

OMG. We either have brilliant minds that think alike or I AM THE ALL KNOWING EVIL MASTERMIND MWAH AH HAHAHA. Yeah, okay….probably just weird coincidence. But let's not interrupt my evil laugh. I'm culturing it. UM YES I KNOW WHO HULK IS. HECK YEAH. LET'S JUST TALK ABOUT SECOND FAVOURITE AVENGER THERE. (Iron Man wins and Captain America looses and Thor has beautiful hair, but I pick Loki and then HULK). *ahem* But you're right also: CASTIEL. He had amazingly appropriate gifs for this post.

Ooh, yes do tell me if you like Gone. I LOVE APOCALYPSES. I DO. I DON'T KNOW WHY. They're very interesting, I think. Yus, in a non-creepy way…lol! I want to watch The Walking Dead actually because zombies and also, yes, apocalypse. IT LOOKS GOOD. I like Supernatural for apocalyptic reasons actually. WE SHOULD ALWAYS WOOP FOR TACOS.

I LOVE APOCALYPSE THEMED BOOKS TOO. Despite that I can never spell "apocalypse" without spellcheck. -_- Can't have everything in life, though, right? I AM A SYNDROME! WOOT I AM A SYNDROME!!! *parties quietly*

I was sad at the ending, because it almost didn't fit the detail and care the first half of the book had. But yeah, Donna was sooo in your face, eh?! I still liked her. She was an awesome contrast to Jefferson too! Which, I won't deny, I loooove if a book has two POVs.

Dating the book I don't as much as I used to, because I figure it's cool in a way. Like, you know, books set in the 90s will talk about Cassette Tapes and stuff…which definitely dates it but it'll just be historical fiction one day, right?! XD Okay, I'm totally on a rabbit trail here.I just read The Maze Runner too! Eeep! I'm excited for book #2 because ohhh The Maze Runner made me happy. XD Finally a dystopian I could cheer over!

Woot! Your library is certainly on the ball getting new releases then. XD GO ZOE'S LIBRARY. *ahem* But yes, I did quite like it, and I so hope you do too. Because, I won't lie: it's awesome when our opinions are the same. NO PRESSURE OF COURSE. lol What a joke. Of course there's tons of pressure.No, no! It's not written in ONLY dialogue! Gosh, I didn't explain myself very well, did I?! SORRY. It's just w hen they do back and forth dialogue it's like that. There's normal description too, like and action sequences.

This is becoming a movie though…which is exciting. I so wish Gone had become a movie or a TV series or something. So I'm toootally excited for this one to be on screen. I mean, heh, the script is basically done, right?!

Sometimes I like the random WHAT THE HECK endings, but in this case, it really left me disappointed. 😐 The book was delivering so much awesome, but, like flipping a pancake sometimes things just flop. (That was an awesome analogy. How do I manage to bring food into all my conversations?)

Partials was amazing, I think only rated it 4-stars though but it really dives into the political and scientific side of the virus. While this is just kids running around with machetes. To be honest, I did better understanding this one because I'm awfully uneducated. Aw, you didn't like Light?! That was my favourite!! XD *sobs for Caine*

Pop-culture references? Not too much, not if you're expecting this book to last ages and ages, and not unless you want to turn the entire book into a massive pop-culture reference and then be done with it. It just makes the book seem like it doesn't want to last. I mean who's going to get the references in ten years time? (Assuming the book is still in print, which it probably won't be considering…)

You know, it's really interesting that you mentioned the author was a film director, because there's actually a TV series with the exact same premise as this. Someone in the Goodreads page of this book mentioned the name, but when she laid out what that series was all about, I was like, "HEY! That's The Young World in a nutshell!" Haha. I read this one months ago, rated it three stars, but have forgotten everything about it so I'm not really in the position to say anything… I do remember finding Donna very interesting, though. The script style was a refreshing change! Haha.Faye at The Social Potato

It doesn't have to be a pop culture reference, any cultural reference throw me. I mean, it's not that everybody lives in the USA, dude. (By the way, I don't speak Supernatural. What's that anyway? XD) But once you get it, the book would be 1000 times better. I like the movie script-ish format. Reminds me of TFiOS. I don't know why, but conversations are always funnier that way.

We'll all be into ebooks in 10 years, right?! LOOOL. *Ahem* Sorry. I totally get what you're saying. Although, won't it just be kind of historical fiction in a way, in 10 years? I mean, like, Perks of Being A Wallflower, for instance is almost 20 years old by now, but it's still as awesome as ever, yet it mentions a LOT of music that was popular for it's time, so that definitely dates the book. But almost in a good way, I think? Anyway, I'm on both sides of the equation. I like it, but I see it has issues.

Oh. Heh, that's kind of funny but disturbing. Maybe there's only so many apocalyptic plots out there?! Apparently this is already becoming a movie with the writer producing or directing or something….which I find cool but there's already one out there?! >_< I forget everything about a book, like, one week later so I totally don't blame you. XD

I AM SORRY FOR THE COPIOUS SUPERNATURAL REFERENCES. I am way to obsessed with that show. It has an apocalypse, though, so it fit. It's the issue , I think, that not everybody lives in the USA! Come now! Cater for us who like to live in other parts of the planet. *sigh* I liked the scrip kind of format. And they did a little of that in TFIOS, right?!

I'm glad you enjoyed this one overall, even if you did have some issues with it. I came away from YALC with 2 copies for some reason, but still haven't got to the book. I was a little nervous, I was worried it would be a bit of a let down. Your review helps though, I feel like I know what to expect now and so I won't be as disappointed. I'm sad Donna loses her snark and humour as the book progresses though, that's going to make me all kinds of sad when reading this.

When I first saw this, I was really skeptical because honestly, it just seemed like another one of those YA post-apocalyptic books. I'm really glad that it was good overall though! Fabulous review as always. 😉